Environmental justice in spotlight as WH official departs

The White House's top official on environmental justice is stepping down a year after President Joe Biden took office with an ambitious plan to help disadvantaged communities and overhaul policies that have historically hurt them.

The departure Friday of Cecilia Martinez, senior director for environmental justice at the Council for Environmental Quality, puts a spotlight on both the administration's successes and promises yet to be fulfilled.

“It was a hard decision,” Martinez told the Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. She said that after many months of working on Biden's environmental policy, she needed time to rest and be with her family.

Colleagues at the White House and in Congress say her departure is a loss since she played a pivotal role in centering disadvantaged communities in President Biden’s environmental and climate policies.

“Her credibility in terms of environmental issues — in particular environmental justice issues — is going to be missed,” said Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz, said.

Martinez helped develop then-candidate Joe Biden’s environmental justice agenda while he was campaigning by setting up meetings between Biden’s team and key environmental justice leaders from around the country. She went on to oversee a review of the Council on Environmental Quality as part of Biden’s transition team and was eventually appointed as the top ranking official on environmental justice in the administration.

“Cecilia has been the heart, soul, and mind of the most ambitious environmental justice agenda ever adopted by a President," Brenda Mallory, chair of the Council of Environmental Quality, said in a statement. “She is an unwavering and effective champion for the communities that, for far too long, have been overburdened by pollution and left out of...